AustLit
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'The “state of exception,” as defined by Giorgio Agamben, has often been evoked in postcolonial contexts as a means of accounting for the way in which exceptional circumstances are used to justify depriving people of their rights under the law. This issue addresses how exception is represented in postcolonial literatures, through the depiction of states of emergency, zones of exception, and various processes of marginalization. In all eight case studies, laws can be seen as subject to interpretation because they represent forms of writing and therefore reflect subjectivity; the authors highlight how their enforcement requires strong ethical principles to protect human freedom and dignity. Literature registers effective resistance when it delineates singular paths – often exceptional ones – towards empowerment in a way the historian cannot.' (Publication summary)
Contents
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Unconventional Memoirs : Mary Fortune’s Account of Life on the Diggings,
single work
criticism
'In “Twenty-Six Years Ago: or, the Diggings from ’55,” published in The Australian Journal (1882-83), Waif Wander (Mary Fortune’s pen name) provides an autobiographical account of an unconventional woman’s life on the Australian goldfields. This article seeks to stress the unconventionality of Mary Fortune’s memoirs, written beyond norms of genre and gender, in order to contribute to their re-evaluation. It addresses Fortune’s exclusion from the Australian literary histories as well as her eccentric and marginal way of life.' (Publication abstract)
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An Exception to European Epistemological Rule : The Representation of Indigeneity in the Works of Mudrooroo and Alan Duff,
single work
criticism
'Starting from Edward Said’s The World, the Text and the Critic, in which he theorizes the cultural movements of filiation and affiliation, this article questions the epistemological links Alan Duff’s and Mudrooroo’s novels weave with European constructs of the Indigenous subject. This theoretical framework can be helpful in understanding the relations between the individual and the collective, mostly concerning their drive toward self-definition and emancipation.' (Publication abstract)
